We come from a world of infection, we live in a world of infection and, in the future, unless we take control of infection now, we will continue to live in a world of infection, Not a quote from the latest series of 24 but a comment from Professor John Oxford on the findings of a global study commissioned by the Hygiene Council. The campaign aimed to explain these results to the general public and impress upon them the need for improved standards of hygiene in the home and in the community.
Although there is undoubtedly an increased awareness of the importance of hygiene with high profile stories about problems such as bird flu and MRSA, many people admit that they don’t always adopt simple hygiene practices in their own homes. In order to address this, the Hygiene Council made a number of recommendations which were used to create a ‘Dettol Consumer Guide to Hygiene’ which could be obtained free of charge.
Radio lent itself well to the campaign with an opportunity to access both feature and news programmes by providing topline statistics and information on the consumer guide alongside more expansive discussion of the recommendations contained within it. However, in addition, we felt that some of the comparisons between hygiene standards across the regions would allow us to give either a regional snapshot or a national overview for television as the story could be well represented visually.
Tonic Life Communications were able to provide us with Professor John Oxford as spokesperson for both radio and television interviews and as Chair of the newly formed Hygiene Council he was highly regarded by the various media owners we approached both from the BBC and commercial networks. The importance and value of having an independent and credible spokesperson was evident in the results that the campaign achieved.
The campaign secured coverage on more than 60 radio stations including 11 BBC’s and IRN, with a combined weekly reach of nearly 11 million. We also secured coverage on BBC News 24 who ran the story on the day of the July launch.